Engineering as a Business Lever, Not a Cost Center

In many non-tech companies, Engineering is viewed as "IT." It is a cost center. "How can we cut the budget?" "Why is it taking so long?"

In successful tech companies, Engineering is a Lever. "If we invest X here, we unlock 10X revenue there."

The Shift in Mindset

From order-takers to Problem Solvers

Cost Center: Sales tells Engineering: "Build this button." Engineering builds it. Lever: Engineering asks: "Why do you need this button?" Sales says "To export data to Excel." Engineering says "We can automate that export entirely so you don't even need the button."

Alignment with Revenue

Engineers should know the unit economics. If an Engineer shaves 10% off the server bill, that is pure profit margin. If an Engineer reduces onboarding time from 3 days to 3 minutes, that is Conversion Rate Optimization.

Empowering Developers

Developers are smart. If you treat them like code monkeys, you get spaghetti code. If you treat them like business partners, you get innovation.

Give them access to:

1. Customer Feedback: Let them see the pain points.
2. Business Metrics: Let them see the Churn Rate.
3. Strategy: Let them know where the company is going.

The ROI of Code

Every line of code is an asset or a liability. Engineering's job isn't to write code. It is to solve business problems using technology. Sometimes the best engineering solution is "Don't write any code. Use a spreadsheet."

When Engineering understands the Business, the business becomes unstoppable.